PRAY LIKE THIS: A LIFESAVING PRAYER

Pastor Johnson Bowie

September 3-4, 2016

Matthew 6:9-13 NKJ

In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be
Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in
heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as
we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver
us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the
glory forever. Amen.

Matthew 6:12 NKJ

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

SKANDALON: the trigger of a TRAP

Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have

something to forgive. C.S. Lewis

The Way the World Deals with Offense:

I curse it.
I nurse it.
I rehearse it.
I verse it.

Proverbs 16:28 NKJ

A perverse man sows strife, and a whisperer separates the best of
friends.

I burst it.

Proverbs 17:9 MSG

Overlook an offense and bond a friendship; fasten on to a slight
andgood-bye, friend!

A Lifesaving Prayer:
1. Confess my debts.

1 John 1:9 NIV

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our
sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Hebrews 10:22 NIV

let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full
assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us
from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure
water.

2. Release their debts.

Matthew 6:14-15 NIV

For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your
heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others
their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

2 Corinthians 5:18-19 NIV

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and
gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the
world to himself in Christ, not counting peoples sins against them.
And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

Once our eyes have been opened to see the enormity of our offence
against God, the injuries which others have done to us appear by
comparison extremely trifling. If, on the other hand, we have an
exaggerated view of the offences of others, it proves that we have
minimized our own. John R. W. Stott

Genesis 4:23-24 NIV

Lamech said to his wives, Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of
Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a
young man for injuring me. If Cain is avenged seven times, then
Lamech seventy-seven times.
3. Prepare for the debts that are coming.

1 John 4:19-20 NIV

We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet
hates a brother or sister is a liar

At last I understood: in the final analysis, forgiveness is an act of

faith. By forgiving another, I am trusting that God is a better justice-
maker than I am. By forgiving, I release my own right to get even and
leave all issues of fairness for God to work out. I leave in Gods
hands the scales that must balance justice and mercy. Phillip
Yancey